Warning About A Mask
by Jukka Bushtail
Summary: Warning About A Mask' from Satoshi's POV. Will he finally be able to catch Dark with his most radical plan yet?


He'd read it somewhere. Everyone has a weakness. That weakness is the key. It took him a while to realise Dark's weakness, but once he'd got it, it seemed so blindingly obvious.

Women.

So now that he knew that, he could formulate a plan to accommodate it. To most, it would seem a challenging task, but Satoshi was not worried on that account. His brain had never let him down.

Tonight was the night. The last surviving member of the Hikari family was preparing for possibly the most important night of his life.

He hadn't actually touched any of the things lying on his bed yet; he couldn't bring himself to do it. Thank God his father was out of town tonight; he'd gone to Tokyo for a week. He hadn't telephoned or emailed Satoshi at all, but that was how Satoshi liked it. The last thing he needed right now was that officious face droning on about 'disgrace' and 'rules'. Satoshi had considerably more resting on this than losing face.

He cast his eye over the objects scattered on his bed again. Bits and bobs, most of the swiped from female colleagues. A pink lip gloss, a freebie from a girls' magazine. He couldn't face the strange looks from the cashier, so he just walked out with the lip-gloss in his pocket. He knew what his father would say, but he didn't care. It was laid on top of a black skirt, part of a suit he'd taken from the police storage facility. He had painstakingly sewn pieces of foam into the skirt and shirt to give him curves. Satoshi sifted through the rest of his hoard. Some eye shadow, mail polish, mascara, a long black wig, heels (how on earth anyone could walk in them, Satoshi didn't know) and of course, the envelope. No matter what he looked like, Dark wouldn't leave without the 'photographs'. Satoshi sighed and picked up the skirt.

Satoshi stared in the mirror, and was repulsed by what he saw. He looked like a bad drag queen. Just then, he almost gave up- almost ripped the whole affair off in disgust- but he forced himself to calm his thoughts.

Come on. Tonight is the night I can end this! Once Dark is captured, no- one will care how I did it. And maybe, for once, Father will be proud of me.

Closing his eyes, he recalled Risa's unconscious femininity: her swaying hips, her coquettish smile, the way she moved her hands when she talked and the way she stood. He opened his eyes nervously- and the person staring back at him was unrecognizable.

Satoshi stood in the museum, hidden in the shadows. He checked his watch; it read 9:03. A cry rang out down the silent hallway.

"The Moonlight Mask has been stolen!"

General chaos ensued in the exhibit room, which Satoshi was sure Dark was nowhere near by now. Another shout, this time a woman's voice.

"There he is!"

That was the squad of females he'd recruited. Right on cue.

"Agh! I can't beat up girls!" Dark's voice, clear and baritone, easily distinguishable from the girlish shrieks.

"Sorry, gotta run." Dark easily left the women behind and Satoshi heard his footsteps get closer. That was his cue. He stepped out, just a little, envelope in hand.

"Looking for this?" Thank God, it came out not too low, not squeaky, but somewhere in between- just like Risa.

Dark stopped, 'Whoa!' written all over his arrogant face. He stepped closer, almost slinking in such away that only an egotistical phantom thief could. His disguise held then.

"I don't suppose you'd just hand it over."

Correct, you gullible scum. And then…

"Close your eyes if you don't want to watch."

Satoshi blinked, then realised that that one was probably directed at Daisuke, whom he hoped would be positively squirming with disgust. Probably not, though. Dark drew himself closer, and Satoshi, remembering how girls seemed to fall at the feet of this thief, backed up against the wall submissively.

"Give me that… or I'll take it by force."

Dark leaned in towards Satoshi's face, their breath mingling. Satoshi saw himself reflected in Dark's deep purple eyes and…

His heart stopped.

Just for a second.

Then something inexplicable happened to Satoshi- almost like a bucket of icy water hitting him in the face- and he snapped out his handcuffs.

"You're so much easier to handle when I look like this, Dark." Dark barely had time to widen his eyes in shock before Satoshi had slipped out from under him and cuffed him to the steel bars behind.

"Saga couldn't have filmed here without police cooperation. I knew you wouldn't leave without this… you're afraid someone might see what's inside." Satoshi dropped the worthless envelope at Dark's feet who, now he had been jerked back into the real world, wore a very inappropriate smirk on his face for someone who was chained to a pole. He even found enough breath to get a jibe in:

"I didn't know you were a cross-dresser, Satoshi."

Satoshi ran a hand through his false hair and permitted himself a small smile. He had come this far, at least. But he knew well enough not to underestimate Dark: he had a nasty habit of slipping out of situations like this, and Satoshi wasn't prepared to let that happen again.

"When I get into conversations with you, you always escape. So this time I'll just put you to sleep for a bit," said Satoshi, reaching into his handbag for a bottle of chloroform 'perfume'.

"You know… as a woman… you're really my type."

"Why… thank you…" said Satoshi, his finger on the button. A voice behind him made them both start.

"Satoshi! I'm the real one."

Satoshi turned, a ball of dread growing in his stomach. Behind him was a teenage boy wearing the same clothes as Dark, his face covered by what Satoshi immediately knew was an original. The Moonlight Mask. It had to be. But Satoshi knew that the person he had trapped was the real Dark- he could feel it. The mask lifted to reveal:

Daisuke.

"That's… not Daisuke."

Daisuke ran off, taking the mask with him. Satoshi was torn. Surely…? But he knew what he had to do- he knew his duty. Looking back only once, he followed Daisuke, and heard the person he had thought was Dark bang his head against the grille in relief.

Daisuke was a good runner and he, Satoshi, had decided to kit himself out in a skirt and heels, hadn't he? Daisuke disappeared into another room and Satoshi stood still, listening for breathing and the irregular rhythms of his quarry's heartbeat. He could tell exactly where he was, and before the clacking heels could give him away, he had grabbed Daisuke with not nearly as much force as he would have used on Dark, and said, "I'll let you go. I just want that. Please give it to me."

But idiot that he was, Satoshi had not counted on the one choice that was the most obvious for Daisuke to take: flight. He ran again, and Satoshi mentally kicks himself for making yet another mistake tonight.

Satoshi runs, but this time Risa merrily steps out in front of him, her foot about to break the circuit that keeps the floor from disappearing- he shouts out a warning, but she either ignores him or doesn't hear-

Splash.

And Daisuke has escaped with the mask, leaving the last surviving member of the Hikari clan sitting in a well, with the non-waterproof make- up running down his face like tears, with a naïve girl who's in love with a thief, with the accusing eyes of his family staring back at him from the water.

You failed, Satoshi…

I failed again.

Satoshi wants to sink into the water and not have to care about fighting Phantom Thieves, about keeping his heart icy- cold, about magical works of art- all the things that a normal teenage boy his age has, but he doesn't- because he is Hikari. No matter what his father says, there is a demon inside him.

And getting rid of that demon seems the farthest away that its ever been.


End file.
